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Monday, 25 January 2016

Waking up on Sunday morning to find Spurs breathing down our necks
in the table only added to the tension in advance of our afternoon encounter. I
was convinced that the Chelsea side that turned up wouldn’t be the same one
that’s struggled all season long and concerned that the psychological impact of
us not having beaten the Blues for so many seasons, might be reflected in an
inhibited Arsenal display.

After all the Gunners have hardly sparkled of late and all the talk
of us being title favourites has seemed quite fanciful to those of us who’ve
watched us eke out results in recent weeks. As they say, hindsight is 20/20
(whatever that may mean!), but considering how long it’s been since we last
stamped our authority on a game, I would’ve liked to have seen Alexis out there
from the start on Sunday, even if he wasn’t fully match fit and might’ve only
lasted an hour or so.

There’s an intensity about Alexis that invariably makes things
happen on a football pitch. With the Gunners pressing high up in the opening
minutes, you could sense the nervousness in the opposition, the lack of
confidence that results in previously composed players making uncharacteristic
errors and even lacking in match practice, we really could’ve done with the
additional attacking intent from Alexis that might’ve caused sufficient panic
to enable us to press home an early advantage.

Instead of which, the Gunners complete failure to threaten Chelsea
early on, afforded our guests time to settle and perhaps playing on memory
alone, knowing quite how often they’ve managed to nullify us in the past, the
Blues soon grew into the game, to the point where they were the source of such
consternation that Costa was once again able to sucker one of our centre-backs
into getting themselves sent off.

Truth be told, the Bambi-like BFG has been looking increasingly
vulnerable, ever since being deprived of the protection offered by Coquelin.
Gawd love him Flamini is a trier and it’s hard to criticize such a willing
grafter, but there’s no denying how much more fragile we’ve been at the back in
Franny’s absence.

Then Arsène only compounds the loss of Mertesacker by substituting
our single most likely goalscorer. With the Chelsea fans’ taunts of “Diego
Costa, he’s done it again” ringing in our ears, this really was a head in the
hands moment, at the prospect of another Groundhog Day demise, but which was
all the more galling because on this occasion it was at the hands of a far less
formidable Chelsea side, who we really should’ve had the wherewithal to be able
to beat.

There was the suggestion that Giroud had been a doubt prior to KO
and I can understand the logic of leaving the pace of Walcott and Campbell out
on the pitch to try and take advantage of the ageing legs of the likes of
Ivanovic and Terry. Yet this presupposed that Theo was capable of actually
having an impact upon such a significant game. Sadly he’s been such an
anonymous passenger of late that even wearing the captain’s armband to honour
his decade at the club, I don’t think there was a person in that stadium who
truly believed Walcott capable of filling Giroud’s goalscoring boots.

You & Me Both!

Our brief sojourn at the top was fun while it lasted, but the table
as it stands after yet another topsy-turvy weekend is perhaps a truer
reflection upon current form. Moreover with the Gunners having long since
become unfamiliar with the art of leading from the front, in trying to put some
sort of positive slant on a gut-wrenching defeat, perhaps there might be some
advantage to letting others make the pace, so we can return to making our more
traditional late run on the rails.

Doubtless Arsène will
trust in the expected leg-up offered by the long-awaited return to fitness of
some of our long-term absentees, but unless Elneny is genuine first XI
material, I would dearly love to see at least one more new signing before the
transfer window slams shuts, if only to provide the rest of the squad with the
psychological boost, by way of the club’s signal of our intent to go “all in”,

Thursday, 21 January 2016

(feel free to jump to the Irish Examiner's edited version, should it prove preferable to my overly loquacious load of old waffle below:http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/terrace-talk-arsenal--potty-mouths-got-to-aaron-ramsey-376738.htmlwith me having procrastinated so long over posting this week's missive, to the point where it's already somewhat outdated, I assure you I won't take offence :-)It amused me that on the same day that I spent the princely sum of 64 quid for a seat in the oxygen-starved environs, right up in the gods at Camp Nou for our Champions League encounter with Barca in March, my precious, highly-prized Bournemouth ticket also turned up in the post.I doubt there can be much more of a contrast in top flight footie, between our trips to Camp Nou and the Cherries humble home at Dean Court, but with us never having had the pleasure of playing there before (at least not as far as I can recall...which admittedly isn't particularly far!!), ironically, tickets for the Arsenal end, for our rare seaside outing to the South Coast, are likely to prove far harder to come by than a seat at yet another glamorous clash with the Catalan Galacticos.Obviously it would've been preferable if our date down in Bournemouth had fallen amidst warmer climes, closer to the end of the campaign. I can't envisage any Gooners, other than the odd, alcohol-fuelled lunatic, paddling in the sea come 7th February, at least not without a heatwave between now and then, whereas a Spring outing to the seaside might've proven far more alluring.Nevertheless, with away fans receiving some 1500 from the mere 12,000 seats available at Dean Court, Bournemouth was always going to be this season's hottest ticket. Presumably the vast majority of tickets went to those of us on the away scheme, but someone was telling me that there was a ridiculous threshold of SIXTY away match credits required for anyone not on the scheme who wanted to apply. Between the away scheme and I believe the box holders' (unfair?) entitlement to eight tickets for every away game, I wonder if any Bournemouth tickets actually made it into the hands of anyone else? As the same Gooner pointed out, away match credits are counted over a two season period and without checking previous fixture lists, sixty away games sounds like an impossible target!Meanwhile, with home games against Chelsea and Southampton to come before then (along with our FA Cup date with Burnley), the match itself might prove no less crucial, when you consider the succession of far more daunting looking awaydays to follow.But then with the table being so tight and most teams only two wins away from the top and two defeats away from being drawn into the dogfight at the bottom, every game has acquired a "must win" aura.With Stoke having taken points from some of our competitors at the Britannia, folk have been trying to put a positive spin on Sunday's draw. From my perspective this point would've been far more acceptable, if we'd managed to hang on to all three at Anfield, as a four point haul, from two of the season's more awkward awaydays would be a perfectly respectable tally.In any other season, a mere two points from these two outings would certainly not be perceived as title challenging form, but then mercifully this is definitely not "any other season" and should everyone continue on their current inconsistent path, our failure to convert awayday points into three might not prove too calamitous come the reckoning in May. Moreover it might be considered a marvel that we managed to come away from the Potteries unbeaten because any side would suffer under the weight of such significant absentees as Özil, Alexis, Cazorla and Coquelin, not to mention our catalogue of long-term casualties in the likes of Wilshere, Welbeck and Rosicky.However, with each passing week, there's an increasing sense that someone is about to grab the Premiership box-seat and begin to run with it and I can't help but feel that the first team to do so, will be the eventual champions and I really don't want us to be left amongst the clutch of clubs trying to play catch up. That's the main reason I was disappointed on Sunday because if the likes of Silva and Aguero are beginning to find their mojo, Man City might not gift us many more opportunities to establish a cushion.Frankly our form of late has been so uninspiring that it's astounding we've not been knocked off our top spot perch. I'm not much of a gamer but I'm counting on the possibility that the return of Alexis and Özil will add the sort of sparkle that will enable us to push the turbo-boost button before Man City. Preferably starting on Sunday!COYGBernard

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Neanderthals' indignation at Aaron having the temerity
to have his leg shattered by Shawcross!

It might well be that for the want of any other credible
challengers, everyone has the Gunners pipped as potential champions.
Yet considering we almost had all three points in the bag at Anfield in
midweek, two measely points seems scant reward from two exhausting
awayday outings?

I’m certainly not moaning, as we’ve managed to negotiate a
daunting week, with us ending up still looking down on the rest of
the Premiership. Nevertheless, the mark of the Gunners title winning
sides of yesteryear was that we could be deprived of the likes of
Bergkamp, Henry, or any of our most influential stars and still retain
sufficient guile and gumption to go to grounds like the Britannia and
somehow manage to snaffle a crucial win.

However when I looked at Sunday’s starting line-up, deprived of
the likes of Özil, Alexis and Cazorla, it was hard to envisage who
was going to be able to unlock the door, against such an in-form Jack
Butland.

It’s ironic that Aaron Ramsey continues to receive such stick
at Stoke, for having the temerity to have his leg shattered by Ryan
Shawcross. Yet instead of Ramsey rising to this ridiculous
barrage, grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck and returning
the compliment with added interest, he seems to disappear into his shell.

Similarly Theo Walcott didn’t appear to relish the prospect of
getting clattered on a particularly parky afternoon at the Potteries. As
evidenced by Arsène choosing to replace Theo with Iwobi for the last 20
mins, when recently it’s usually been the more energetic
Joel Campbell that gets hooked. Although the Ox made a decent fist of it,
it was a big ask of him to fill the boots that had been vacated by
the sore tootsies of our German playmaker.

Yet on an afternoon where I feared we might be fatigued by the
high-drama of our midweek efforts at Anfield, if we were bereft of
the ingenuity to give Butland more of a work out, there were plenty of
positives at the opposite end of the pitch. It’s almost becoming routine
to the point of not being noteworthy, when the serene magnificence of
Petr Cech once again comes to our rescue. If Cech’s composure is
reminiscent of Seaman in his pomp, there was something equally
nostalgic in the sight of the linesman at the Britannia responding with
such frequent regularity, to our back four stepping up in unison with arms
raised.

There’s no substitute for the sort of intuitiveness that
derives from a defence that remains unchanged, game in, game out and
thereby acts as a single unit. Doubtless I’m tempting fate for
our backline to leave Costa all alone to score against us next
Sunday, but with us seemingly having begun to develop the discipline and
the confidence to know that there are no stragglers, there’s something
decidedly satisfying, an almost balletic quality, in seeing all their
arms raised as one, with an authority that almost guarantees that the
linesman will acquiesce.

It could be said that with so many awkward awaydays to come,
the Gunners have wasted an opportunity to firmly establish ourselves
as the front runners. But my feeling has always been that if we could ride
out our injury woes, while keeping ourselves in the title frame, we
will be well placed to use the return of some of our star players, hopefully
fresh, fit and raring to go, as a springboard to mount a real charge for
glory.

I only hope this begins with the return of Alexis and Özil
for the Blues visit next weekend. With every other bugger
taking advantage of Chelsea’s demise, it’s high time for a return of
the natural order of things in the capital, with the Gunners demonstrating
the shallow façade of mere monetary achievement, by finally
demolishing the upstarts.

Monday, 11 January 2016

Judging by the irritatingly incessant
whining of the WOB, despite the fact that we’re currently looking
down on every other club in the country, there are far too many
Gooners, who simply can’t comprehend that the vast majority
of footie fans spend their entire lifetimes waiting, mostly in vain,
for their teams to win something.

With our own comparatively trifling,
nine-year sojourn in the silverware-starved wilderness interrupted by
the euphoria of successive, memorable May day outings to
Wembley, this adds a certain spice to the recommencement of a journey
that many seem to feel is now destined to always culminate in
another end of season trophy party. But then it’s been so long
since we last lost an FA Cup encounter that I guess it’s
inevitable that we’ve become somewhat blasé. Folk seem to forget
that every cup run requires a large slice of good fortune.

In spite of the incremental efforts to
sabotage the highlight of the sporting calendar that is the 3rd round
of the FA Cup, myself I’ve always adored this unique convergence
of clubs from contrasting tiers of the football
cake. The increased allocation of tickets for away fans will
often result in a stonking atmosphere. Yet there’s simply
no accounting for the incompetence involved in Sunderland returning
around half of their tickets, too late, apparently for them to go
back on sale to us Gooners.

The FA badly need to address the fact
that there were far too many empty seats all over the shop this
weekend. A good start would be for clubs to acquiesce to
the “Twenty’s Plenty” campaign. Instead of Black Cats’ bums
on seats prior to Saturday’s KO, there was a large banner draped
across the empty section promoting this effort to limit costs for
the travelling hard core to 20 quid.

Moreover, the rotation that results from
prioritising Premiership ambitions sends the sort of signal that
inevitably has a detrimental impact upon the intensity and focus
of those involved. As evidenced by Laurent's uncharacteristic lapse in concentration,
in gifting our guests the opening goal!

In the absence of the customary 3rd round
fervour on the pitch, combined with the muted atmosphere off
it, sadly Saturday’s encounter was a perfect example of
the creeping diminution of the traditional cup “blood and thunder”.
Still with BFS railing about their midweek relegation “nine-pointer”
v Swansea, if Sunderland were gentle as a result, I guess we should
be grateful that Cattermole & co. didn’t leave their customary
black & blue marks on the Gunners. Seemingly everyone in
the stadium, bar ref Atkinson, was convinced Giroud had
been brought down in the box during the second half, but it
speaks volumes that this match transpired without a single nasty
tackle of note!

Watmore Jeff?

Iwobi hasn’t exactly pulled up any trees
on the odd occasion that I’ve seen him play as a central striker
for our U21s, but playing behind Giroud in Saturday’s rare run-out,
he was about the only Arsenal player who looked really up for it
in the first-half, as he was at least trying to make something happen.

Unlike Man Utd, we might not have taken a
tedious 70mins to produce a shot on goal, but with five players
on the park with alleged attacking instincts, it
was particularly disappointing that we failed to put the prosaic
Black Cats under the cosh.

After Sunderland took the lead some
suggested that they’d rather see us lose than risk blowing vital
Premiership points against Chelsea, as a result of a
midweek replay. Mercifully we didn’t have to wait long for
Joel Campbell’s retort and while this performance might’ve been
far from the Gunners at our scintillating best, there was cause for
optimism that this goal and the two subsequent peaches were
all straight out of the “football made easy” book, as extremely
pleasing on the eye, slick, passing moves.

Our cup might’ve runneth over and out if
Sunderland hadn’t fluffed two great chances following the break,
but after Ramsey came on and snaffled our second, there seemed
little fight left in the relegation threatened, Wearside mongrels. I
was hoping that the Ox would grab his recent opportunity of some
proper game-time, but he and Gibbs both failed to impress and
with pace being his greatest threat, it’s really hard to fathom
why Walcott appears so reluctant to run in behind the opposition’s
back-line.

Joel or Hector MOTM?

I was also disappointed that
Reine-Adelaide only enjoyed a cameo late run-out, when the game was
already won. This elegant teenage midfielder covers the ground
with the sort of effortless grace that’s reminiscent of
the panther-like Henry on the prowl and we’re all impatiently
waiting to see if he can truly cut the top flight mustard. The
consensus is that Bellerin was MotM, but I think Campbell shaded
it. It must be unsettling knowing he’ll be sidelined as soon as
Alexis returns, but after so many seasons in the shadows, it would be
foolish to let Joel fly the coop just right now.

With Klopp struggling to muster a team
from his decimated squad, Wednesday’s trip to Anfield is looking
less daunting. If the unknown Elneny is the only guaranteed
acquisition, with crucial matches coming thick and fast surely Jeff
will be let off the leash before long? Obviously a home draw in the
4th round would be most expedient, but if not, please could we at least be
presented with an unusual awayday outing?

Sunday, 3 January 2016

I recall watching such a mediocre Man Utd earlier in the season and
wondering how on earth they were managing to remain there, or thereabouts, in
touch with the league leaders. Similarly, I’m sure that any neutral watching
our lacklustre win over Newcastle on Saturday would’ve found it barely credible
that they were witnessing the current title favourites, in the process of going
two points clear at the top of the table.

The afternoon looked like turning out to be even more profitable, when
it appeared as if we were destined to stretch our lead over Man City to a
somewhat more significant 5 or 6 points. Having dashed back home from the
Arsenal, to watch the late KO on the box and with the plucky Hornets retaining
their goal advantage, right up until the 82nd minute, it seemed as if the gods
were really smiling down upon us Gooners on Saturday.

Our own 3-0 win at Vicarage Road was decidedly flattering and what with
Spurs snatching a somewhat undeserved winner right at the death in Watford's
last outing, even when City equalized, I thought that surely they were due to
at least deny City a couple of points, by holding out for a draw. Seemingly
Sagna had other intentions, seeing the 32-year old full-back storming down the
flank in the 84th minute. Bakary appeared intent on dishing out some rough
justice to all those Gooners who’d booed him at our place a couple of weeks
back, by whipping in the cross for Aguero’s winner and thereby denying us a far
more comfortable cushion, over the most obvious threat to our title
aspirations.

Although I can appreciate the perceived treachery felt for any player
who mercenarily forsakes the red and white cause to serve another pay-master,
there are those former heroes who roundly deserve being given the bird by our
crowd and those who’ve spent the majority of their career providing such loyal
service that I’m always left feeling particularly uncomfortable, hearing their
every touch booed upon their return to the club in an opponent’s colours.

Sleeper cell, or deserved payday
& a dreadlock holiday

I certainly felt that Sagna merited a more magnanimous reception. Not
only can I not begrudge him wanting one last big payday before hanging up his
boots, but with him having suffered a Samson-like disaster the one and only
time he attempted to rid himself of his dated Bo Derek style dreads at the
Arsenal, I often wondered if a motivating factor for his move was Baks
desperate desire to finally see the back of his twee looking “Barnet”.

Who knows, perhaps much like Cesc Fabregas, Arsène’s apparent sleeper
cell at Stamford Bridge, Sagna is merely inveigling himself into Pellegrini’s
plans as a more permanent first choice, prior to perpetrating the ultimate act
of sabotage, as this campaign reaches its climax? Truth be told, we might well
end up requiring such chicanery and all the external aid we can get, if the
Gunners are to carry on in such a complacent looking fashion as Saturday’s
lamentably leaden-footed triumph.

Ultimately I was just delighted that Koscielny eventually found a means
of securing the all-important three points, which meant that my
brother-out-of-law might be invited back again. Sure with Petr Cech saving our
bacon yet again, there was plenty of satisfaction in seeing the Gunners being
able to win quite so ugly, when this essential title winning attribute has been
on the missing list for much of the past decade.

Yet with Dave over from Dublin for his first match since we departed
Highbury, it was disappointing that the Gunners failed to light up such a
depressingly rain-sodden afternoon, with this encounter lacking even the odd
isolated moment of "worth the price of admission alone",
trophy-winning type example of the beautiful game (as evidenced in City’s two
game-saving strikes).

With Özil’s body language frequently demonstrating his frustration at
the lack of vitality of those around him, the miserable weather seemed to
reflect the Gunners’ mood, as in the majority of them looking as if they’d much
rather be elsewhere! It was only when Campbell came on for the last 20 minutes
and really started putting himself about that the Costa Rican’s energy truly
put into focus the comparative lethargy of the likes of the Ox, Walcott and
Ramsey.

Wenger was on the verge of resorting to throwing the young
Reine-Adelaide into the fray to try and conjure up some inspiration. The
youngster was stripped off and waiting to come on, only for us to be denied an
opportunity of seeing if he can cut the mustard, as he was promptly sent back
to the bench when Laurent poked home what proved to be the decisive goal. So
as the stadium finally rocked with a wave of euphoric relief, my own unconfined
joy was tinged with a slight hint of sadness.

Hopefully the French midfielder
won’t be left waiting too long, as he’ll likely play some part in next
Saturday’s FA Cup encounter with BFS’ Black Cats. Doubtless with this being
timed to demonstrate that Arsène isn’t quite so desperate to splash the cash,
with more resources to be discovered from within. Whether or not Wenger
reinvigorates our squad, by availing himself of a bulging wallet, we’re
certainly desperate for some spark to reignite our recent indifferent form,
with the return of Alexis’ dynamism the most likely source.